The blowout is sending a geyser more than 50 feet into the air from an old well drilled in 1991, officials say.

Published 5:17 pm, Wednesday, November 17, 2010

A broken well near Pearsall in Frio County continues to spew hydrogen sulfide and water.

A broken well near Pearsall in Frio County continues to spew hydrogen sulfide and water.

Well still is spewing

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A blown-out well near Pearsall in Frio County continues to spew a geyser of water and the toxic gas hydrogen sulfide into the air, defying a three-day effort to contain it, various officials said Wednesday.

He estimated that his residence is four to five miles from the blowout.

Eaton said he's heard some people complain about headaches and watery eyes. And he said he and his neighbors are concerned that the gas will leach into the city's water supply it draws from the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer.

As operators were moving the rig that drilled the new well, an old, plugged well nearby - drilled in 1991 - started to blow out, Fischer said.

On its website, VirTex said the nearby well "believed to have been abandoned nearly twenty years ago (1991), suddenly began releasing a mixture of water and natural gas into the air. Although this well was never a VirTex well, its surface location happened to be located near the well bore of another well that was recently drilled by VirTex."

She said the flume should allow engineers divert the flow from the blow out "so they can get in close to see what needs to be done."

Frio County Judge Carlos Garcia said he's holding meetings with emergency officials at 9 a.m. daily, and residents are welcome to come and ask questions. The meetings are held at the Frio County Courthouse, 500 E. San Antonio St. in Pearsall.

"We don't have a single person who has been hospitalized" because of the blowout, he said. "We are hoping that tomorrow (Thursday) that the apparatus on the well will give them a chance to contain it."